It is absolutely fascinating how woman use the same textual evidence to support their claims for equality as men do to support female submission. The construct of weakness rooted in the snake's decision to approach the woman is taken from a different angle by these women. While men obsess over Eve's use of "lest" in her argument with the snake, these women note the strength that Eve has an argument, as opposed to Adam who "submissively" takes the fruit from Eve. We see how paradise lost focused on such an important, unexplained facet of our story: Adam's presence and motive in eating the fruit. So paramount is this to understanding the story that Milton creates a motive in light of the absence of one. When looking at the text, it seems as though the women here are correct. Adam does not even mention the prohibition and God's word before he eats. Women are usually said to be more distant from god than men, both in their creation and how God does not speak directly to women. However, Eve demonstrates a much closer tie to God's word than Adam does.
Grimke adopts many of the themes we have seen so far in male interpretations and takes them a step further. The strong theme of companionship we saw in the protestant readings emerges here when she claims Eve's creation "was to give [Adam] a companion, in all respects his equal" (E&A 341.) Of course Grimke takes it one step further and advocates complete equality in Adam and Eve's life partnership, but drawing on previous notions is a good way to persuay a male reader. The previous thought that only man was given power over the earth and Garden of Eden is reexamined here by taking the word "man" as generic term for the ambiguous "mankind." Again most of the content used to support female submission is the exact content used to support their equality.
The "letter of the God of Love" was a very confusing text, as it seemed to try and elevate the position of the woman by relying on the very characteristics men use to subdue them. The initial argument of punishing all women for the deeds of one is compelling. However, multiple characterizations of women as gentile, plain, afraid, and weak filled the text. Hopefully we can clarify this issue in class.
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Just to note: Anastasius Sinaita was male. However the views expressed here don't seem to have much in common with his other writings ...
On Anastasius Sinaita:
"However, Eve demonstrates a much closer tie to God's word than Adam does."
It is precisely for this reason that some of the previous interpreters held her "sin" to be worse. In my view, once you get off on the wrong foot in an interpretation, you can go any which way and you can't get a definitive result, as you're asking the wrong question.
On Grimke:
You rightly point out her indebtedness to earlier views.
On De Pizan:
"The "letter of the God of Love" was a very confusing text, as it seemed to try and elevate the position of the woman by relying on the very characteristics men use to subdue them."
Precisely. This is the result of 'essentialism', still debated among feminists. The problem is that it's hard to get a good focus on the differences, if any, between men and women, as women's 'nature' is such a refined social construct.
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